


Sleeping On The Job

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fainting, Fever, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 00:17:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10231286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: Keith is very very tired, and Red knows.





	

The Red Lion’s clock ticked over to the Earth equivalent to 6 pm. It marked the twelfth hour of their extended mission. It wasn’t as much of a test of skill as a test of endurance. In the process of driving Galra forces away from a small resource planet, Voltron may have destroyed multiple sentries. While they were ultimately appreciated, the citizens of the planet wanted their sentries back. With Pidge, Hunk, Allura, and Coran down repairing them, it left the rest of the paladins acting as the watchdogs.

_ There isn’t anything to even watch for...  _ Keith thought, eyes threatening to droop close,  _ We already took out all the Galra ships. _

“Shiro, are you sure we still need to be out here?” he asked into his helmet microphone.

_ “Yes, Keith.” _

_ “But there isn’t anything out here!” _ Lance complained on the other end,  _ “We kicked the Galras’ ass! They’re not coming back anytime soon!” _

Shiro sighed, his breath coming off as static in Keith’s earpiece, “I know. There’s no threat. This is a show of apology and solidarity. We broke their sentries, so we have to act as them until the others get them fixed.”

Keith sighed and turned his volume down. A pounding headache started its assault five hours ago. It began as a small ache behind his eyes, but now it felt like a hammer was slamming against his skull with every blink. Red was acting strangely as well. Her interior lights were clearly dimmer, and her movements through space seemed to be smoother than usual. Even now, as they made around orbit around the planet to greet the local star, she put extra shields up to prevent more light from coming through.

“Thanks, Red...” Keith muttered, gently brushing his armrest.

_ “What was that?” _ Lance asked.

“Nothing, just talking to my lion. Hey, I’m gonna shut my eyes for a bit - do you guys have it covered?”

_ “We’ll take your watch, Keith,”  _ Shiro approved,  _ “Get some rest.” _

_ “Wait, we’re Voltron! We’re not supposed to sleep on the job! I know there’s nothing out here, but come on! What if the Galra come back?” _

Shiro rolled his eyes, “We might be Voltron, but we’re also human. We need to sleep. Don’t worry, Lance. We’ll take shifts. Just leave your helmet on in case we need you.”

Keith nodded, set his helmet aside, and turned the volume up. If they needed him, he would hear them without the constant talking in his ear. He would only sleep lightly anyway, right? He settled as comfortably as he could in his pilot's chair and closed his eyes.

“I’ll just be down for a minute or so, Red...” he mumbled, “You know what to do...”

* * *

 

_ “-th? Keith?! He’s not responding, we need to get his lion open!” _

_ “Are you kidding me?! It’s Keith’s lion for a reason, she’s just as stubborn as he is!” _

_ “How else are we supposed to get to him?!” _

Keith’s eyes lazily drifted open. People were yelling, he didn’t like it. They were being too loud. He automatically reached to his head to adjust the volume on his helmet, but his hand bumped into his head instead. He wasn’t wearing his helmet?

He looked around, finding all of his surroundings were fuzzy and tilting to the side. He tried to blink the sleep away, but the environment only spun further. But his friends were screaming at him from the helmet. He hastily shoved it on.

“Guys, guys, I’m here. What’s going on?”

_ “Are you okay?!”  _ Lance shouted.

“Yeah, I-I’m fine! Just dozed off for a second, what’s going on?”

_ “Your lion put on an emergency broadcast, almost crash landed on the planet, and put her barrier up! And you were unresponsive for over an hour!” _

_ “Lance, stop yelling at him. The important part is that he’s okay and no one got hurt. Keith, hop out of your lion, we need to see why you were unresponsive. Pidge is gonna run a diagnostic on your lion.”  _ Shiro ordered. Keith nodded, though Shiro couldn’t see him, and got up from his seat. The ground spun beneath him, forcing him to grab a solid surface and breathe. Was it cold in the lion? No, it was too hot. So why was he shivering?

Slowly, Keith made his way to the mouth of his lion, using every handhold he could to move forward. The world wouldn’t stop moving around him, no matter how long he stopped to breathe.

“Shiro...” he breathed, “I think something’s wrong...”

Red’s mouth opened in front of him, and he saw the last bits of her barrier disappearing. Still, Shiro vaulted over the remaining pieces and rushed towards Keith. Without the stability of walls around him, Keith pitched forward as darkness overcame his eyes.

* * *

 

“Keith!”

Shiro jumped over the Red Lion’s teeth just in time to catch his falling paladin. Keith went completely limp in his arms,  _ disturbingly _ limp. Hunk and Lance joined him, keeping Keith’s head upright and worriedly pacing around Shiro respectively. Pidge ran past them all, device ready to scan the lion, but not without a look of concern for her fellow Voltron arm along the way.

“Pidge, stay on the line,” Shiro said as he hoisted Keith up, “I wanna know what’s going on as soon as possible.”

“You got it.”

“Lance, run ahead and get a healing pod ready, just in case.”

He didn’t need to be told twice. The Blue Paladin sprinted towards the castle of lions, parked only a small ways away. Hunk stayed by Shiro’s side for the comfort of both of them.

“What do you think happened?” he asked, trying to keep Keith’s head as steady as possible.

“I don’t know. He said he was going to take a nap, and that’s the last we heard from him.”

Shiro got Keith into the castle just as he was waking up. He was set on a table outside the healing pods and frantically fussed over. It wasn’t until Hunk pulled out the more earth-like medical supplies that they figured out what was wrong.

“He’s just got a high fever,” he reported after scanning Keith’s forehead, “It’s not dangerously high, but it’s enough to make him woozy and pass out, obviously. He just got up too fast. There’s literally nothing else wrong with him.”

“What?!” Lance rushed over from his station at the healing pod, “You mean to tell me you almost crashed your lion on the planet we were helping  _ just because you were a little warm?!” _

Keith opened his mouth to respond, but Pidge did for him over the intercom, “Actually, no. Red had a lot of firewalls I had to get past, but I eventually cracked her open. She _knew_. She somehow read Keith’s temperature. And based on the vitals she calculated after he fell asleep, she thought he was in danger and brought him to us. Keith didn’t do anything except take a really deep nap.”

Everyone sighed in relief, except for Lance. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to think of what to say. He wanted to be angry at Keith for scaring them so much, but he was also incredibly relieved. He settled for staring Keith straight in the eyes.

“ _ This _ is why we don’t sleep on the job.”


End file.
